Ashok Prakash Pal was a class-8 student, who studied in a small school in a village in coastal Maharashtra. He was the son of a wealthy landlord, who had recently become a very powerful.

Being the son of the most powerful man of the village, Ashok got a lot of respect in school and he enjoyed it and often misused it. He created an image that he was the coolest kid around and that it was fun hanging out with him. Several of his schoolmates fell for it. Soon, he had a big group of students accompanying him wherever he went. The only thing missing was an official "Ashok fan club". Even when Ashok cracked the oldest joke on the planet, the kids around him laughed as though it was the funniest thing they'd heard. He had created such an image that anything he said and did was "cool".

All that partly changed, when a bright kid named Sampark Singh joined the school. He was friendly. He was genuinely talented, hard-working and had an awesome sense of humour. Slowly, many of the kids who were once behind Ashok, started feeling that Sampark was way "cooler" than Ashok. Sampark's clout increased rapidly. Barring Ashok's closest "fans", everyone else agreed on who the cool-guy of the school was! Sam, as they called him fondly, became the toast of the school.

One day, their science teacher asked them to do a project on the flora and fauna of their village and their surrounding villages. Sam thoroughly enjoyed working on it. He travelled around the village and to the neighboring villages collecting leaf specimens, taking notes of animals and birds he'd seen. He got back to the library to identify the species that he'd seen and noted down. He also helped out many of his friends who were stuck.

By this time, Ashok, too, was in good terms with Sam. Both of them spent a lot of time at the library, exchanged notes and even worked together. Sam shared a few leaf and flower specimens which Ashok had missed. Sam suggested the books they should refer to, for project ideas. He even shared his copy of the book. Finally, they all completed and submitted their projects. The next day morning, the science teacher called Sam to the staff room.

She said, "Sampark, Ashok came and met me yesterday evening. He complained to me that you had copied several ideas from report. I went though the reports, and I found several portions of your report similar to Ashoks'". Sam couldn't believe what he was hearing. He was in tears. "But, miss, that could be because we used same reference books. I even helped Ashok out, with some parts of the project", he said.

"No excuses. You should feel ashamed of yourself, Sampark. You are disqualified from the contest", she said sternly.

SamSingh was so frustrated with himself that the evil AP.Pal had taken him for a ride. "Life's not fair", he muttered, as he left the room in tears.

PS: This story is not connected in anyway to any smartphone makers. Any similarity is purely coincidental :P :P